Using Promotions to Build Audience and Sales

Audience promotions may take the form of advertising in other media; spots on the promoting station; contests in stores, by mail, or on the air; stunts performed with some kind of public exposure; unusual services in the interest of community service and audience information; or any of a legion of other forms. In each case, the intent will be for the listener to be attracted, either aesthetically or materially, to listen. Since listening is the key to audience promotions, some abstract determination of the worth of a new listener, in dollars and cents, must be made. For example, if a contest costs $1,000 to run and attracts ten permanent listeners, it could be construed to be too expensive per listener gained. On the other hand, if management values listeners at $100 each, the contest would be worthwhile. In determining what kind of contest to run, management should also determine why the audience should be built. If a bigger audience won't make any difference in earnings, there may be no reason to en'arge the audience at all. This can be the situation, for a station may be virtually sold out, with rates that cannot be increased without going beyond available customers' budgets.

Having determined what new listeners are worth, and also having concluded that the only reason they aren't listening is either that they haven't tried the station or don't have any great preference. the station must try to get the non-listener to tune in, and get the undiscriminating listener to settle on the promoter's dial position as a habit. This is the purpose of an audience promotion. All too often stations run audience promotions that are expensive attempts to do something other than switch listeners to the station, or develop listener preference. These attempts are doomed to failure from the start, since listeners will quickly tune out when they discover the same sloppy, ill-sounding programming.

Actually, a good audience promotion is usually a good sales promotion. A good promotion for a sutiluil is that S1 !lien ntegrates outstanding activities in sales. programming, engineering, and administration to achieve more business. Thus, it is doubly important, when choosing a sales promotion, to be selective, and determine first, a goal. There can be many reasons for running a promotion—to attract new business; to give existing customers a "special" to build their enthusiasm; to create excitement among advertisers; to prove the station's pulling-power to existing as well as new advertisers, etc.

There are numerous stuffed animal suppliers hawking their wares for this one. It is a good contest at Easter or Christmas time, although it loses its impact after a run or two, at least in a small town. This promotion has the advantage of a fixed cost per sponsor, the cost of the animals, plus coupons and posters, so no matter how few are sold, cost is fairly linear.

This promotion is inexpensive and easy to run. A special price is established for advertising. As a credit against this price, the station will pay an advertiser up to $25 (or some other such figure) toward the wholesale price of his prize. The station provides entry forms, posters, and runs ads in newspapers or other media promoting all participating stores and services. The cost is linear, allowing any number of sales with a profit to the station. The idea of giving a credit to the advertisers for their prize allows the station to be sure the prizes are uniformly good from store to store, and are of equal value so that no one shop steals the spotlight. It has a community service aspect, too, since the station is running a town-wide promotion. Merchants will like this one; it's a good traffic-builder.

These are supplied by a variety of syndicators and card suppliers. The idea is simple enough: Customers get cards from an advertiser, listen to a specified program which includes a listing of numbers, and if they win, collect a prize from the sponsor or the station. In spite of arguments to the contrary, bingo doesn't seem to harm the image of a station, is easy to run, and is relatively inexpensive. Be sure to arrange a way of checking winners' cards, however, to avoid errors and hard feelings.

Once the goal is determined, it is necessary to select the promotion that will achieve the goal. This is the most difficult part of the job, and one where the biggest mistakes are made. When selecting the promotion, imperative questions to ask are: (1) What is the cost? (2) What will it net, after commissions? (3) How much of the volume will be "switch" rather than new business? (4) Will it require a high acceptance to make money, because of high initial expense, or will expenses be a fixed percentage of each sale? (5) Will you be paying others for services or prizes that you can provide yourself for less? (6) Will the timing be to your best advantage, with the resulting revenues coming when you need them? (7) How many potential customers do you have at the price required? (8) Will the sales time taken by the promotion be more than would be required to get an equal net return on non-promotional selling? (9) Will the promotion contribute to the station's reputation?

An effective promotion must be well coordinated. This means more than just a sales or program staff meeting; it means that all departments of the station must have an opportunity to meet together and iron out problems, with an open mind to non-sales or program-oriented comments. The chief engineer might point out some equipment limitation to the project, one which might be significantly improved by a modification of either the promotion or the equipment. The C.E.

This is a syndicated sales promotion, developed by Community Club Awards, Inc., Westport, Connecticut. It involves the accumulation of receipts and other proofs-of-purchase by members of competing organizations, submitted to the station weekly with a tabulation of points earned. Each week, the club accumulating the most points earns a cash award, and a grand prize is given at the conclusion of the contest. Because of the cash prizes, and a franchise fee to CCA, this copyrighted promotion has a relatively high breakeven point. On the other hand, it does a tremendous job of getting traffic for advertisers, and proves it. It is also a community service, since it helps the participating clubs accomplish their objectives by assisting their treasuries. When considering CCA, major costs are printing, franchise fees, and prizes. Advertiser support must be reasonably substantial.

This is the most exciting promotion ever run at WOHI. Arrangements were made with the publisher of a "Community Shopper" newspaper to publish a special issue. Advertisers were solicited for combined radio-shopper ads for a period of a week. Shoppers were bulkmailed to everyone in the listening area. Each shopper was numbered, and recipients were encouraged to visit the stores to see if their number qualified them for "crazy" bargains, like a 10ft car, $1 mink coat, etc. Because of the odds, with only one winning number out of all the shoppers mailed, clients can run big specials for winners without great risk. In addition, numbers can be posted throughout the stores for little item specials. This is a great traffic-builder, with lots of excitement. The station also gets into every home via the shopper. Costs are high, but the excitement makes it worthwhile. Be sure to investigate printing, addressing, and mailing requirements carefully with the printer, post office, and advertisers. Be ready for layout work at the last minute, as you try your hand at the print media.

Here is a good promotion for publicizing a station. Automobile litter boxes, distributed to customers by the sponsor, are displayed on the shelf below the rear window. Each day, the station sends out a staff member to spot cars, and prizes are given for displaying the box. The promotion is a natural for a gasoline company, with five gallons of the advertised fuel as the prize. Our station paid for the litter boxes and provided them to the advertiser in return for a big schedule and for providing the prizes. It's a big boost for the station when call letters appear around the area in the windows. Variations on the theme are bumper stickers and decals, although the litter boxes have a certain public-service aspect.